Hi friends, One thing that has been bugging me is that “pizz.” “arco” and “unis.” are not centered on the note heads. “Behind Bars” shows these playing techniques centered. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
I use Engraving Options > Playing Techniques > Horizontal Position > offset = -1 space, which makes the usually-4-letter markings nearly centered. Adjust to taste.
Will this affect other playing techniques too? Currently, up-bow and down-bow indicators are centered. I don’t want to mess those up in the process of adjusting the pizz, arco, and unis indicators. Thanks so much!
No, this setting is only for text-based PT.
Out of curiosity, why is it like this (un-centered)? One of my favorite Dorico strengths is its superior alignment capabilities. The Gould shows pizz., etc, centered and if I’m not mistaken, the book was the blueprint for some of Dorico’s alignment decisions. If my workaround is playing with the offset, couldn’t this be implemented as the default alignment in Dorico? Again, I’m not upset, just curious. Thanks for your help!
If a switch were made and notes were close together, a centered text term might be misinterpreted as belonging to a prior note. Having the first letter of the text indication over the affected note is perhaps more precise in the view of those who designed the program.
I am unaware of a single passage in Gould where she says to center this kind of textual information — granted, I also can’t find her discussing the alignment of this kind of text at all. However, based on all her examples taken as a whole, it seems more like all technique text are left aligned and have a negative horizontal offset of a consistent amount by default, rather than a true centering.
This thread is very interesting, I actually did not know about that Engraving option. If I may, I think the arrow is not showing the right direction. As it stands, a positive value would nudge the text backwards, and a negative value forward. But it’s the opposite that happens (which is fine). Simply change the arrow (vectors have meanings, a size and a direction)
1 Like
Yes, examples in Gould such as p.407 and 493 seem to show text starting a bit to the left, but not centred.
It’s more obvious in longer terms, like ‘sulla corda’.
1 Like
On page 407, pizz. and ord. look centered to me. “Sul pont.” looks left aligned. I couldn’t find where she specifically speaks to the alignment of playing techniques, but throughout the book, if there is room in the music, “pizz.” “arco”, etc, seem to be centered.
1 Like